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Reviews tagging 'Incest'
What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo
2 reviews
danajoy's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
5.0
An incredible memoir. Very moving.
"It's ok to have some things you never get over"
This is confronting, especially in the first third when Stefanie outlines the abuse she sustained as a child that led to her development of C-PTSD.
What I really appreciate about this memoir was how open she is about her journey, especially with therapy.
I would recommend this to people who have read or attempted I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy. Both are centred around sustained child abuse but What My Bones Know looks at science and ways to heal and grow.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Abandonment
Moderate: Self harm and Suicide attempt
Minor: Incest and Pedophilia
careinthelibrary's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0
This was really good. It struck me how candid Stephanie was being about her childhood traumas, how those experiences affected her and as a result rippled down to all of Foo's relationships and aspirations.
The descriptions of the childhood abuse was palpable, sickening, and incredibly sad. Major content warnings for these scenes, please take care while reading.
The relationships with her parents in her adulthood was also fascinating. How she manages to maintain some contact with her father despite how much he hurt her. We do what we must to find mental and physical safety but how much we can crave love from our parents even if we fear them. It's a constant balancing act and so emotionally exhausting.
I don't know very much about psychiatry and psychology so this aspect of the memoir was a bit over my head but I still followed along. She made it pretty easy for non-experts to understand the different kinds of treatment she sought. This memoir is so sad, reading about Foo encountering so many hurdles and struggling to find the light at the end of the tunnel. Knowing that she was well enough to write this memoir, reflecting on her life does little to lessen the second-hand blow of her life story to the reader. It's heavy heavy heavy.
I wish her the best in continuing to heal and understand herself before and after the trauma.
The descriptions of the childhood abuse was palpable, sickening, and incredibly sad. Major content warnings for these scenes, please take care while reading.
The relationships with her parents in her adulthood was also fascinating. How she manages to maintain some contact with her father despite how much he hurt her. We do what we must to find mental and physical safety but how much we can crave love from our parents even if we fear them. It's a constant balancing act and so emotionally exhausting.
I don't know very much about psychiatry and psychology so this aspect of the memoir was a bit over my head but I still followed along. She made it pretty easy for non-experts to understand the different kinds of treatment she sought. This memoir is so sad, reading about Foo encountering so many hurdles and struggling to find the light at the end of the tunnel. Knowing that she was well enough to write this memoir, reflecting on her life does little to lessen the second-hand blow of her life story to the reader. It's heavy heavy heavy.
I wish her the best in continuing to heal and understand herself before and after the trauma.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Bullying, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Cursing, Grief, Self harm, Hate crime, Ableism, Alcohol, Suicide attempt, and Alcoholism
Minor: Body shaming, War, Incest, and Infertility
negative self-talk, bad therapy experiences, victim blaming.
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